Chuck Berry’s debut album After School Session and Chicago “Queen of Blues” Koko Taylor’s self titled record are getting reissues through Chess Records’ Acoustic Sounds Series. The series celebrates the 75th anniversary of the celebrated blues, jazz, and rock label.
After scoring hits with “Maybellene” and “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1955 and 1956, Chuck Berry didn’t release his debut studio album until May 1957. Issued as catalog number LP 1426, After School Session was only the second LP Chess ever put out. Its dozen tracks were drawn from Berry’s earliest sessions for Leonard and Phil Chess at Chicago’s Universal Recording Corporation, spanning from a May 1955 date that produced “Wee Wee Hours” through a January 1957 session that yielded “School Days.” Nearly every song had already appeared as a single, and several became defining hits in their own right — “School Day (Ring Ring Goes The Bell)” topped the R&B chart, while “Too Much Monkey Business” and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” both cracked the R&B Top Five.
Koko Taylor‘s self-titled 1969 record, meanwhile, remains one of her most acclaimed statements. Born Cora Ann Walton and raised on a farm outside Memphis before relocating to Chicago in the early 1950s, Taylor was discovered singing in local blues clubs by bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon, who became her mentor and chief collaborator. Dixon handed her “Wang Dang Doodle,” which reached the R&B top five and sold over a million copies, becoming the song most associated with her. The album, released on MCA/Chess, also features Dixon compositions like “Twenty-Nine Ways” and “Yes, It’s Good for You,” plus Taylor’s own “Nitty Gritty,” backed by a lineup that included guitarists Buddy Guy and Johnny Shines.
This marks Taylor’s first entry into the Acoustic Sounds series and Berry’s third. Berry’s albums St. Louis to Liverpool and Berry Is on Top are also available through the collection, which also features classic albums from Etta James, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and more. Each vinyl in the Acoustic Sounds series is mastered directly from analog tapes by Matthew Lewans, and pressed at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) on 180-gram wax.
